Staircases, Pretty Views, & Good Eats

On our second day in Santa Fe, we awoke to this pretty view outside our hotel room.  I don't know why some of us expected warmer and sunnier weather...perhaps we were confusing New Mexico weather with Mexico weather...ha!

Someday I hope to have something like this hanging over my living room couch!  What a pretty landscape portrait!!  I just adored the vibrant colors in this painting!

I also adored how utterly Catholic this little city of Santa Fe was!  I felt so at peace there.

Yet another failed attempt to get inside San Miguel Church, the oldest church in the USA!

Another visit to the oldest house, right across the street from the oldest church, from the outside that is.

Check out the straw type of material that was embedded in the walls!

Funky decor in the hallways that we traveled down to attend conference sessions.

 

This fountain was just outside one of the session rooms.  It's hard to see in this photo but water was streaming down this neat piece of rock on the wall.

During the lunch break, a few of us stopped next door at the Loretto Chapel.  This landmark has existed for more than 100 years and is best known for the legend about its "miraculous staircase". 

Close up of the rosaries dangling from the limbs of this tree outside the Loretto Chapel.

Looking out at the rosary tree

 

The Sisters made a Novena to their patron saint, St. Joseph the Carpenter, when wondering how they could solve the problem of getting to the choir loft from the chapel (since no staircase had been built nor could a conventional one be placed in the chapel).  As the story goes, on the ninth and final day of the Novena, a mysterious carpenter arrived to design and construct a circular staircase to the choir loft.  The tools on his donkey were just a saw, carpenter's square, a hammer and tubs in which to soak the wood. 

The Loretto Chapel is fashioned after Sainte-Chapelle in Paris and was built in the 1870s to serve the Loretto Academy, operated by the Sisters of Loretto.

The "miraculous staircase" contains 33 steps.

The staircase makes two full 360-degree turns.

There is no center support nor is it held from its sides.

When the staircase was complete, the carpenter disappeared without seeking payment!

Sculpture Garden outside the Loretto Chapel in the snow as we headed to lunch.

 

Enjoying my Santa Fe Beer!

My lunch was a the Frito Pie minus the chile 

One of my colleagues ordered these yummy looking fish tacos!

Apparently it's abnormal to go to New Mexico and not order chile?  ;)

 

I felt like I was on a movie set every time I would walk about town and see the unique architecture...so neat to see it in person!

 

Loretto Chapel as we headed back to the conference

Loretto Chapel at night!

My friend, James, took me to the Rooftop Pizzeria where we enjoyed delicious pizza & (Marble Brewery?) beer.  It was neat hearing his experiences of growing up in such a Catholic city and sharing stories of his grandfather and other relatives making pilgrimages to the Santuario de Chimayo since I knew I would be going there the next afternoon!  It was also fun seeing other folks out and about from my conference too.

YUM!

These puppies patiently awaited their owners as we dined and drank.

Bar hopping after dinner....but unfortunately I had to return to the hotel since I had to present the next morning..it was fun pretending I was back in college and in my early 20s for a couple hours though.  ;)

 

Have I mentioned how absolutely beautiful Santa Fe was in displaying the art EVERYWHERE!?